In
fairness we
note that the
reporter on
the piece
told Inner
City Press
on August 25
that he "saw
it as
rehearsal
attack against
an
empty tent.
Not on a
medical camp."

While
some
humanitarians
who have
contacted
Inner City
Press
disagree, it
seems a fair
point, when
coupled with
recognition
that the UN's
FIB
needs a hard
look.

But
who will give
that hard
look? We have
shown, just
last week at
the UN
in New York,
that wire
service
Reuters was
willing to
channel an
unnamed UN
official's
spin that the
M23 rebels had
entered the
no-weapons
security zone,
even as the
acting chief
of UN
Peacekeeping
Edmond Mulet
told Inner
City Press and
a different,
less UN-useful
wire service
that there
had been no
violation of
the security
zone.

Compared
to
the re-type
shop (and worse)
its UN bureau
has become,
Reuters has
relatively
better
reporters in
Kinshasa and
Cote d'Ivoire.
The
latter, we've
met and so
held off
saying this.
But to
unself-consciously
say that
MONUSCO of
course must
respond to
protect
civilians -- "they
have a clear
obligation to
respond" --
without
mentioning
that MONUSCO
and UN
Peacekeeping
are
still
assisting the
Congolese Army
units which
raped 135
women and
girls in
Minova, seems
to require noting.

Deeming the
UN, from
the outset,
the most
credible
source may be
a less than
journalistic
approach --
for purposes
of this piece,
in the Congo,
but in Syria
and elsewhere
as well.

For now
on DRC this
still remains
outstanding: at
Friday's noon
briefing, video
here from
Minute 10:15,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN's
outgoing deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey about the
answer, when
Inner City
Press and
another
journalist
asked UN
Peacekeeping
acting chief
Edmond Mulet
Thursday if
the M23 rebels
had entered
the security
zone
established
around Goma.

"No,"
Mulet said.
"Just
mortars." He
went on to
refer to the
separate "red
line"
established
when M23
agreed in
Kampala
to pull out of
Goma. (The
portion of
that agreement
that gave M23
one
third of the
security force
at the Goma
airport
remains
unimplemented.)

But
later on
Thursday, the
wire service
Reuters reported
"a senior
U.N. official,
who asked not
to be named,
said that on
Thursday the
rebels entered
a security
zone
surrounding
Goma" -- which
Mulet,
the acting
chief of DPKO,
had just
denied. Inner
City Press and
the
other
journalist
waited to ask
Mulet again,
and got the
same answer.

So
who is this
"senior UN
official who
asked not to
be named"? In
UN
Peacekeeping,
only Herve
Ladsous is
senior to and
could
over-rule
Mulet.

So
is Reuters'
"senior UN
official who
asked not to
be named"
someone junior
to Mulet, or
as another
journalist
suggested, no
one
at all?

On August 23,
Del Buey said
he knew what
Mulet had
said, and has
"seen other
reports." He
said he'd have
to check. But
August 23 was
his last day
at the UN (the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
wished him
well, video
here at
Minute
9:55).
So we'll see.
Watch this
site.